THE NATION: Peace?

Few towns of 15,000 population are as
famed as Newburyport, Mass. In Revolutionary days it was the home of
"Lord" Timothy Dexter, who made a fortune selling warming pans to the
West Indies. It has great square houses stretching more than four miles
along its elm-shaded High Street, its restaurants specialize in clam
chowder. In the late '20s, a buffoon of a mayor named "Bossy" Gillis
put Newburyport on many a front page with his antics: he festooned his
ridgepole with chamber pots, planted tombstones for his political foes
in the front...